Latest Clinical & Research News
Specialty: Heart & Vascular
At the 2019 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress, investigators from Brigham Health presented results from highly anticipated cardiovascular trials with the potential to transform clinical practice.
The team at Brigham Health’s Heart & Vascular Center have been pioneers in cardiovascular genetics since the field’s inception in the 1980s when Jon and Christine Seidman discovered the genetic cause of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Since that time, they have continued to lead innovation and growth, both in fundamental discovery and clinical practice.
Read More
For more than two decades, Brigham Health has been providing comprehensive cardiac care for patients with Marfan syndrome and other connective tissue disorders, including Loeys-Dietz syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
William Henry Sauer, MD, the new chief of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Service at Brigham Health, discusses his vision for the department and how an expert team of electrophysiologists are providing leading-edge care for abnormal heart rhythms that affect a variety of patients, particularly those with complex medical concerns.
Read More
As the number of patients in need of heart or lung transplants continues to exceed the number of donor organs that are viable and available, many patients die while waiting for a transplant. Through the DONATE HCV Trial, a team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is expanding the donor pool by enabling transplantation from hepatitis C-infected donors.
In a recent publication in the New England Journal of Medicine, a multidisciplinary team of experts from Brigham and Women’s Hospital reported a 100 percent success rate for transplant recipients who received lungs or a heart infected with hepatitis C (HCV).
Six months after transplantation, patients remained hepatitis C free and had functioning transplanted organs. The trial showed that a four-week antiviral treatment regimen started immediately following organ transplantation prevented HCV infection in all patients and led to excellent outcomes. Given the success of the trial, enrollment continues.
The DONATE HCV Trial is the largest clinical trial to date for HCV thoracic organ transplantation. “If even half the other centers in the United States were to adopt the Brigham protocol, we would, in fact, shorten the time to transplantation by nearly half,” says Mandeep Mehra, MD, medical director of the Heart & Vascular Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The team has enrolled 69 participants to date.
In the above video, hear more from the investigators pioneering this trial, including:
The PARTNER-3 Continued Access Trial: TAVR in low-risk patientsBrigham and Women’s Hospital is one of two centers in New England currently participating in the PARTNER 3 Continued Access Trial that offers transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) to low-risk patients undergoing valve replacement for severe aortic stenosis.
Read More
All patients who undergo a cardiac procedure at the Aortic Disease Center are placed on a list. After discharge, these patients are systematically followed via a robust post-operative tracking system. Issues that crop up are spotted fast.
Read More
Catheter ablation has become an important therapy for patients with ventricular tachycardia (VT). However, it has been a challenge to access arrhythmia sources deep within the heart muscle with the use of conventional approaches.
Read More
It’s estimated that approximately 168,000 TAVR procedures will be performed annually in the United States. According to Pinak Bipin Shah, MD, most TAVR programs grew quickly after the FDA decreased the risk-level indication, but many programs have plateaued.
Building on pioneering work performed during the first wave of heart-lung transplantation, Brigham and Women’s Hospital has resumed its heart-lung program and is once again performing the rare procedure.